


Who Mourns Tin Soldiers?

by APocketSizedAce



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Also i may have cried a bit writting this, Angst, Basically bastion finally has a breakdown over everything, Being the last of their kind, Character Study, Nobody ever talks about how bastion must feel, Or how much reinhardt must scare them, Or how they feel about humans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-23 03:31:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10711287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/APocketSizedAce/pseuds/APocketSizedAce
Summary: Bastion Units are never buried, they realized that early on. Neither Humans or Omnics cared enough to bother, even though the Humans created them and the Omnics fought alongside them. They just left them there to rust, and Bastion knows they had been left behind too. Someone has to remember these unnamed soldiers, even if it hurts.





	Who Mourns Tin Soldiers?

**Author's Note:**

> Bastion's dialog is written in italics.

  Bastion does not like to be in places like this. Where Omnic corpses are left behind to rust in a forgotten battlefield. No, Omnic isn’t the right word. All of these piles of twisted metal are the remains of Bastion Units. Soldiers nobody cared enough about to bury, left as a warning, whether to Omnic or Human kind they don’t know.

  They do not like to be in these places, it makes them feel a whole spectrum of emotions they don’t have words for. But someone needs to be here. There is no one in the world who would mourn a Bastion Unit, nobody but them. So they search for these places and stay in them for hours on end because no one else will.

  Zenyatta had told them once about honouring the dead by remembering them. That’s why humans have special days like Remembrance Day or Dia de los Muertos. But Bastion doesn’t remember much from before. Their memory chip decayed somewhat when they lay deactivated for all those years, and the images are corrupted with static most of the time. But the others have memory chips, where the entirety of their short lives are stored. While it makes Bastion sad that they don’t need them anymore, they don’t want them being damaged any further. So they would carefully pry the chips free then take them back to their room, where they would place them in a small box. That box does not get opened much, but they make sure its contents don't get dusty.

  As they roam the field they let their thoughts wander into a more bitter direction than they usually take. Humans can go on and on about the tragedy of The Crisis, and are justified in doing so. Bastion knows this, yet they remember clearly how they’d been scolded by Angela when she had caught them once in a field like this one. Her words still stung when they thought about them. “Why mourn such monsters? Stop this foolishness, it’s getting late and we need to get home.”

  Angela lost her parents in the war, they’d been told that. Bastion understood she had a right to be upset, but they wished she could respect their feelings as well. Humans sometimes seemed to think they were entitled to grief, or maybe they just thought Bastion Units didn’t deserve to be remembered.

 

  Bastion doesn’t know how The Crisis started, created when the war was already well underway. They don’t remember why they were fighting, someone just told them to attack. They look to one of the mangled Units lying on the ground. _“Did they ever tell you anything?”_ They ask, but the corpse’s dead optic just silently stares up at them.

  “There you are!” Someone shouts from behind them and they jolt in surprise. Why him, why Reinhardt? The Crusader is the last person they want to be around right now. A human who probably killed some of these units lying in this field.

 _“Leave me alone.”_ They say, though the string of noises are not understood by human ears. Bastion feels anger bubble up inside them and it’s dizzying. They draw their handful of chips closer to their body, as if to shield them from the man who keeps drawing closer. _“I don’t want you here, go away.”_ But Reinhardt doesn't do what they ask and they just want everything to stop happening for a little while, it's too much.

  “You can’t wander off by yourself! What if someone sees you? Now come with me we’re going back to the ship!” Bastion turns to face him and he’s _wearing the armour._

  Images flash through their head. The swing of a hammer, a wall of flames. Metal caving and snapping under harsh blows, turrets torn apart by fire. A screech tears itself out of their speakers, a horrible static filled sound that sends the man reeling back. _“Leave me alone!”_ They scream, beeps and whirrs shrill with rage. _“How can you just stand there!? In battle armour with a weapon you used to kill Bastion Units when I’m just trying to pay respects to them!”_

  He’s reaching for his hammer and Bastion is _terrified_ but some part of them urges this man to do it. It sneers at Reinhardt, go ahead. Finish the job. Kill me so you can go back to not having to feel guilty about all the Bastions you killed, if you ever did at all. It's that part which urges them to scream again. _“Why are you humans so entitled?! You killed all of them! ALL OF THEM! I’m the last Bastion in the world and you won’t let me grieve!”_ They feel kind of feral, there’s a manic energy going through them that they can’t explain.

* * *

 

  “What’s gotten into you?” Reinhardt demands. Bastion is typically so docile, keeping to themselves to the relief of the other Overwatch agents. This outburst is scary and strange, the Omnic is stomping and flailing their arms like a child having a tantrum. He can’t understand what it is they’re screaming about and he wishes Zenyatta were here to translate, he might even be able to calm them down from this fit.

  Reinhardt has a hand on the hilt of his hammer, glad he decided to wear the armour. He doesn’t trust Bastion and the Omnic wandering off on their own wasn’t a good sign. Their rage is frightening and he hastily summons his shield, even though Bastion has no bullets to fire. Reinhardt has not forgotten facing these metal monsters in battle and his body reacts before his mind can. A single optic stares him down through the blue barrier.

* * *

 

  _“You’re all scared of me! No matter what I do I’m always going to be the bad guy!”_ All of their suppressed frustrations come pouring out of them. _“You don’t even care how scared I am of you! You think I don’t notice how you wear the armour all the time since I came to Overwatch?! I’m terrified to leave my room because there’s a metal monster patrolling the halls, waiting to bring that hammer down on me!”_ Bastion yells. They can feel their circuits running hot and warnings about overheating are flashing on their HUD.

  They miss the forest. They miss the trees and the deer and, and- _“I WISH I NEVER CAME HERE, I WANT TO GO HOME!”_ They scream and their voice finally crashes under the stress, static spilling out of their speakers. The wild energy starts to leave and they feel fragile without it. Bastion opens their hand and the chips have been crushed, destroyed at some point in their outburst.

Omnics can’t cry, but the hiccupping static almost sounds like sobbing.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm motivated to write by my pure rage at the lack of Bastion content.


End file.
